A  report release last month by New York’s Workforce Strategy Center, “Building Effective Green Energy Programs in Community Colleges,” features several innovative Seattle efforts, including programs at South Seattle Community College, which houses the largest selection of construction apprenticeships in the state of Washington; the Seattle Jobs Initiative; the Seattle-based Workforce Development Council; the City of Seattle; and SkillUp Washington.

To read more about innovative new workforce efforts in Seattle, refer to pages 10-11, and 14, of the report, which examines the burgeoning national ‘green’ industry, its economic promise, and the challenges and strategies involved in cultivating green jobs and the workers who fill them.

Julian Alssid, a researcher involved in writing the report, wrote recently about the group’s findings in a column for the Huffington Post, “The Promise of ‘Green’ and a Dash of ‘Reality’” (June 3, 2010). Alssid writes, “Our research…discovered several examples of how we might be able to develop the kind of training and development that will be needed to support the new industries when they are ready.”

• Click here to download the full report – “Building Effective Green Energy Programs in Community Colleges” (PDF)

• Click here to read the Julian Assid’s Huffington Post article, “The Promise of ‘Green’ and a Dash of ‘Reality’”

• Click here to learn more about workforce strategy in Seattle’s Office of Economic Development